Lockheed Martin has conducted the sixth Open Mission Systems (OMS) flight test demonstration on-board a U-2 Dragon Lady ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
Conducted in support of the US Air Force’s (USAF) OMS vision, the demonstration focused on communications, relay capabilities, dynamic weapon retargeting and methodology.
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Integrated with multiple radios and associated waveforms, the U-2 served as a communications gateway between an F-22, F-18 and a long range anti-ship missile (LRASM) surrogate platform.
The fifth and fourth generation fighter data and U-2 onboard intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and electronic warfare systems data were relayed to both a Rover ground terminal and the common mission control centre, enabling the LRASM surrogate to be dynamically retargeted in midflight.
Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs (the Skunk Works) director John Clark said: "This demonstration focused on communications relay capabilities and dynamic weapon retargeting within an OMS integration methodology.
"This demonstration showed our ability to integrate mission capability rapidly and affordably while highlighting how the OMS standard provides the Air Force a mechanism to own the technical baseline for their future systems."
In addition, the USAF’s 76th Software Maintenance Group developed and flight tested a software application designed to operate in the Skunk Works mission management software suite.
With this demonstration, the company has successfully integrated and flight tested seven OMS payloads on-board U-2 in a span of less than three months.
The latest flight test forms part of a series of tests that demonstrate the power of Lockheed’s open architecture approach combined with the Air Force OMS standards.
The test confirmed stability of the entire OMS mission package, as no software or subsystem resets were required, and marks a significant step toward risk reduction for future system-of-systems hardware and software developed to follow OMS standards.
Image: A technician completes final pre-flight checks on a U-2 Dragon Lady before an open mission systems demonstration flight test. Photo: © 2015 Lockheed Martin Corporation.
